Editor's note: The Camera is counting down the Top 10 local news stories of the decade as chosen by newsroom staff. Readers also selected their top picks by voting at dailycamera.com.

Her death occurred 13 years ago, but the case of JonBenet Ramsey is built on such deep mystery and high intrigue that it continued blazing a trail right through the past decade.

The most notable development in the case came on Aug. 16, 2006, when a 41-year-old former schoolteacher was arrested in the murder of JonBenet, a 6-year-old child beauty queen found dead in the basement of her 15th Street home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996.

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John Mark Karr, who confessed to the murder, was picked up by authorities in Bangkok, Thailand, and extradited to Boulder, setting off a media firestorm that engulfed newspapers and cable television worldwide.

Twelve days after Karr's arrest, then-Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy announced that DNA evidence had determined that Karr had nothing to do with JonBenet's death. He was eventually released.

Two years after the Karr imbroglio, Lacy wrote a letter to Ramsey's parents, Patsy and John, and brother, Burke, exonerating them of any role in JonBenet's death. Lacy apologized to the family for having had to endure such intense and long-lasting media speculation and condemnation. Her July 9, 2008, letter was prompted by new DNA evidence that ruled the family out as suspects.

Patsy Ramsey never heard Lacy's words of regret. She died in June 2006.

Investigators continue to focus on a sample of DNA from an unknown male that was found on the clothing that JonBenet was wearing when she was killed. So far, no matches in the federal criminal DNA database have been reported.

Sarah Huntley, spokeswoman for Boulder police, said her department continues to investigate the case but has not had any breakthroughs to report.

"As we said previously, detectives are working this case as time allows, just as they do other cold cases," Huntley said.

Ramsey's attorney, Lin Wood, couldn't be reached for comment. Last week, however, John Ramsey asked, once again, for the public's help in finding his daughter's killer.

On the brighter side of cold case investigations, Boulder police were able to finally make an arrest in the brutal rape and murder of 23-year-old University of Colorado student Susannah Chase.

The arrest, in January 2008, came a little more than 10 years after Chase was attacked near her home at 18th and Spruce streets in the early morning hours of Dec. 21, 1997.

Police used DNA evidence to place 42-year-old Chilean native Diego Olmos Alcalde at the scene of the crime. Alcalde was tried earlier this year and convicted of first-degree murder. He will spend the rest of his life in prison, with no chance of parole.